You had to be from the elite counties of Division One to make a mark in the national side. You had to be an aggressor to succeed as a skipper in the bloodhound era of the Clarkes and the McCullums. You had to take on the bowlers with the ferocity of the Sehwags and the Haydens to pile runs as an opener.
Throughout his career, Alastair Cook stared down a huge check-list of attributes that made no sense to him.
Yet somehow he, built well over six feet of height, tallied the sixth highest aggregate Test runs.
He stuck with Essex through both adversity and glory, when he smiled at the overwhelming odds to break through the Final Frontier, deemed too big an ask even for the grumpier Waugh.
By the time he was done stacking the most number of centuries bearing the brunt of the new ball with a calm dead bat every time he walked out, it still did not make sense, but perceptions were shattered.
The Chef, a figure of awkward misfit and perhaps too ahead or too late for his time, decides to walk off the pitch one last time in the final Test against India at The Oval. Here are the five greatest moments from England’s bright-eyed manifestation of grit, character and everything the English cricket was not about in a pre-Cook era.
#5 Colossus Down Under
Not since the summer of 1986-87 had England won the hallowed urn in Australia for more than two decades. After years of the same old re-run of the script of four-day humiliations against Border, Waugh and Ponting’s men, England needed someone special to clinch the series for them in the country they found the most daunting.
Cook battered the hostile crowds, the fast bowling cartel which had been pumped after Peter Siddle’s famous birthday hat-trick, overtook the Don to score the highest Test score at the ‘Gabba by racking up 235* in England’s slightly respectable total of 1/517.
This effort came in the face of a 221 run first innings deficit.
By the time he had scored an unbeaten 135 at Adelaide, he had registered 371 runs in 1,022 minutes of play on Australian soil without a bowler being able to get him off the pitch.
By the time he had made Sydney a fortress of his own by scoring 189, he had accumulated 766 runs for the series.
England’s demons of decades had been exorcised by the calmest of operators, as they humbled Australia to a 3-1 defeat, the second of their three in a row.
#4 Breaking the Indian voodoo
In modern cricket, it was the fashion for visiting sides to struggle in India and it was the norm for England to be abysmal.
While their performances in Australia looked lacking in edge as compared to the hosts, in India, they seemed to be a tad befuddled regarding the general operations of a cricketing bat.
In 2012, they arrived on the shores of their nemesis, Cook only recently been handed captaincy.
As was usual for anything he did, there was a lot of chatter about him not doing it with a demeanour of the glamorous valour of his predecessors.
However, Cook had a plan. And a ridiculously simple one.
He backed his best cricketers.
Kevin Pietersen was given the confidence of his role in the side and was asked to do typically Pietersen things.
While the spinners were his go-to, he called on James Anderson and Steve Finn to exploit the reverse swing available on the SG ball in the subcontinent, a ploy many captains failed to exploit due to their judgement being clouded with the hysteria of using spin.
Oh, and for his own contribution? 562 neat runs including a near invincible 190 at Kolkata, to set up England’s first series win in India since 1984/85.
To put things in context, only one other side has won a Test series in India in this millennium. And that side managed to have the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Glen McGrath and Jason Gillespie handy.
#3 Putting out the Protea Fire
It is time for perspective lessons. South Africa is the worst place to try to win a Test series if you are not Australia. Since their readmission, England was the only side other than them to beat South Africa, that too back in 2004/05.
A side featuring an immovable object in Hashim Amla and an unstoppable force in AB de Villiers. Add to it a pace battery of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada that licked its lips every season as if batsmen’s fear and sub-100 totals were the only ingredients they needed to finish preparing their cauldron of immortality.
As opposed to teams going with the extra pacer in the conditions that made Sreesanth look unplayable, Cook went in with five batsmen capable of batting in the top order, followed by all-rounders Moeen Ali and the skipper’s masterstroke selection, Ben Stokes.
While this ploy tired out the home seamers, the two all-rounders made sure that only England’s front-line bowlers bowled when Amla and de Villiers were at the crease. The fearless attacking fields to the latter worked wonders as he found it impossible to get going against the menacing Stuart Broad and his sly assortment of teasing out-swingers and the one terminating in-swinger.
The No. 1 ranked South Africa were beaten 2-1 as Cook scaled the last of his foreign fortresses.
#2 Desert Storm…almost
After a spree of dominant results around the world, including against the No.1 ranked side India in 2011, England were shown a cruel descent by an aggravated Pakistani side playing on their adopted home of the United Arab Emirates, as they were blinded 3-0 in 2012.
Three years later, Cook led weakened, albeit determined side to England’s land of horror and doom, ready to rectify the wrongs of Andrew Strauss.
However, a reality check was quick to arrive as England were made to toil for the better part of five sessions as Pakistan piled on 8/523.
It seemed as if the nightmares of 2012 were about to play all over again. But Cook was quick to channelize the stubborn grafter in him as he guarded his wicket for close to fourteen hours to pile misery and fatigue on the Pakistani bowlers. His 263 gave England a priceless 75 run lead.
It was in the third innings of the match that he made the real defining move. Adil Rashid, who despite bowling to defensive fields had been carted for 163 runs in the first innings, was persisted with by the skipper to surprisingly close catchers.
Rashid, instilled with confidence, sought some help from the Gods of the Wearing Subcontinental Pitch and engineered a staggering collapse, taking 5/64.
Had it not been for the controversial insufficient amount of photons emerging from the floodlight towers on the final day, England would have gone on to take a sensational 1-0 lead in the series and who knows what could have happened?
#1 Swansong
An early bloomer, mainstay, the reliable man, the “captain”, the “leader”, Cook had seen an upward trajectory all career but when on-field results started flattering lesser and lesser, true to his characteristic humble self, he handed on the role to Joe Root. It was fitting as Root was the one player Cook had groomed right from his early captaincy days.
Back to square one in the hierarchy, Cook’s place in the side became more questioned than ever, especially in the wake of England having relinquished the urn in just three Tests in the 2017/18 Ashes.
At the daunting turf of MCG, England were left with the task of salvaging pride against the bunch of prowling Aussies. Trailing by 327 in the first innings, Cook dug in.
He dug in deep.
He transcended the self-demolition in the Summer of Johnson in 2013/14, submission to Sri Lankan bowlers in 2015, the torments of UAE over six Tests, the red-faced departure from India in 2016, and dug in.
He caressed the pace of Pat Cummins with all his 150 Tests of experience in his deft touches, he manhandled Jackson Bird like he did in years of supposedly bygone glory, he frustrated Nathan Lyon into bowling shorter lengths and toyed around with Josh Hazlewood as if facing a second XI bowler of his county.
Had the English side not been dismissed, one of the best resurgence stories in modern day cricket wouldn’t have ended, as Cook never got out.
He finished with 244, carrying the bat, a record high score for such an instance and gave England their best result of the series, a draw when everyone had given up on him.
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